The Greatest Golf Course In the World- Pine Valley

Jerome Travers on Pine Valley - Excerpt from his book: The Fifth Estate

Pine Valley, in my judgment, is the finest golf course in the United States and equaled by few in any part of the world. As a test of the game, it is supreme. Neither flat nor hilly, the undulating land resembles a desert into which have been dropped clusters of beautiful trees. White sand is everywhere, great stretches of it reaching along the fairways and circling the putting greens. Nature's color combination is entrancing. The grayish white of the desert blends softly into the green of the woodland; and where these sandy rivulets wind in and out through the meadow or flow gracefully over the grass-covered parapets, it reminds you of snowdrifts resting on the countryside.

Over this rarely picturesque spot in the lowlands of Southern Jersey hovers the memory of the man who conceived it and to whose broad vision and unstinted energy Pine Valley now stands as a monument. I met him some years ago--George Crump, a splendid, whole-souled chap then in the fullness of his life.

To him Pine Valley was the dream of a lifetime come true. As a boy he had traversed every foot of the sandy soil with a shotgun slung over his shoulder as he and his comrades spent days in the woods bagging quail, which were to be found in abundance there. It was the place of his dreams. In later years, when he had prospered and found his notch in the world of business as a hotel owner of wealth and affluence, his eyes and heart turned again toward the wooded spot in which he had found so much joy in his youth.

George Crump told me of it himself. The vision of Pine Valley transformed into a masterpiece of golf architecture came to him on one of those exhilarating expeditions he was again making over its white-grained expanses and through its quail-inhabited thickets, all so reminiscent of similar journeys he had made many years ago. And yet it was different now. He was middle-aged, a fair measure of his life behind him. Then he had stood at the threshold of his life, free of responsibility, unburdened with the cares of the world and conscious only of the great fun which could be found in roaming such a paradise as this. There is nothing to equal youth. Again Crump was free from the cares of the world--released from the burly of business life that had filled in the span from those early days and that he had weathered better than most men, to retire from the strife before it was too late to enjoy the fruits of his inde-pendence. And he understood perfectly why he responded more to the charm of this tree-hedged desert than did any other living man; he knew that this later-day thrill gathered its chief luster in the echoes rumbling down from the past and in a sentiment which time had made mellow and rich.

I know that these were the thoughts that George Crump had of Pine Valley. He told me of them himself. Crump's vision began assuming concrete form when he engaged the famous English golf architect, Colt, to come to this country to plan a course of surpassing merit and extraordinary beauty.

Colt, deeply impressed with the scenic splendor, pitched his tent in the woods and camped there for a week or more. He emerged from his hiber-nation enthralled. The same potential qualities for a wonderful links which Crump had visioned became even magnified under the critical analysis of the expert. He reported that it would be possible to mold one of the finest courses in the world from the ground so treasured in the memories of George Crump.

"Good! I thought so. I see it all as you do-the sand, the trees, the turf and the rolling ground.

Good! Let's make it what you say-one of the best courses in the world."

Crump was jubilant.

Colt's verdict was music to his ears; he told me of the happiness it brought him.

From Colt's blue-printed diagram was reared this magnificent golf course you will find in a quaint old section of New Jersey not far from the Delaware River. But the man in whose brain the image was born passed on before it had reached the perfected state you now see. It had been his ambition to finish it and present it to the club. But it was ordained that Crump was not to visualize in finished form the great creature of his fancy.

That is the historical and sentimental side of Pine Valley. The purely practical side is that few courses have been constructed in this country with the same premium for good playing and penalty for poor playing. It is not a course for the duffer. Every bad shot is punished. To wander away from the fairway is to play in heavy white sand such as vou will find in the traps of other courses. Here there is a bunker, there a trap, scientifically placed to catch the errant shot and to exact no penalty from the good one. Inferior golf cannot survive for more than a lucky shot or two, while good golf finds its just reward. This quality is a distinctive characteristic of Pine Valley. It offers encouragement to the golfer playing in good form and endless trouble to the man off his game.

The first time I saw Pine Valley was in the late afternoon of a fine summer day some years ago, when only fourteen holes had been completed.

That same day I had won an invitation tournament at the Huntington Valley Country Club, in the suburbs of Philadelphia, and was at the top of my form. George Crump made the round of the unfinished course with us, explaining each of the fine points of the links as we went, notably that par had been worked out on such scientific principles that the question of distance on many of the holes had been scaled down almost to inches.

Then I managed to make every one of the holes in par that afternoon he actually found more pleasure in the accomplishment than I did. And when I told him frankly that I believed he would soon have on his hands the best golf course in America, he concurred so heartily that I gained my first insight into the depth of the pride he felt in this de-velopment. My enthusiasm was genuine. Pine Valley has been my favorite links from the first day I played it.

Why Pine Valley Should Not Be Ranked #1

This is more personal than golf history so bear with me, but I thought it was worth sharing with you. This isn’t the Society speaking, so much as it is the opinion of Connor T. Lewis.

An Argument for Pine Valley Being the Best Golf Course in the World:

^:Pine Valley doesn’t have a single weak hole. Each hole is as spectacular than the last. It is a hole by hole experience that was masterfully crafted by Harry Colt with input by George Crump and then a multitude of golf course architects from the Philadelphia School of Architecture (more on them in a future newsletter). If the argument for Pine Valley being the greatest golf course in the world is an argument of the sum of its parts- it’s nearly impossible to argue against it. It is a spectacular golf course and a behemoth that doesn’t relent.

My Simplistic Argument for Why Pine Valley Shouldn’t be the Best Golf Course in the World:

It lacks variety for the multitude of golfers. In my estimation of golf course architecture and one that is often used to define golt architecture “strategy” is that a golf hole is great when their are lines of choice to play off the tee that offer a risk with a  reward. Pine Valley certainly meets that criteria. However, I would argue that Pine Valley rewards a very specific golfer and penalizes another- it rewards the golfer who hits the ball high and for the most part penalizes the low ball golfer. PV also demands forced carries into the majority of its greens, eliminating the ground game for approach shots. I argue that despite Pine Valley not having a single weak hole, it’s strength is in fact it’s weakness when it comes to how I would rank it. The best golf course in the world should offer the lower handicap and the higher handicap lines of play that will create strategy as well as enjoyment.

Is Pine Valley still a Top 2, Top 3 or Top 5 course in my estimation? Absolutely! I merely drop it out of the #1 spot because it rewards and penalizes certain golfers over others.

The Restoration of Pine Valley

The one thing I would like to see Pine Valley embrace is a true restoration. What would that entail. This is going to sound obnoxious for a club named Pine Valley, but I think they have a tree problem.

Before you overreact let me explain. Pine Valley was never meant to be an “American Links” a detreed landscape. It has always had pine trees and should always be surrounded by pine trees. What I am arguing is that pine trees has over the years narrowed the visual corridors. In short the pine trees have limited the visual landscape by as much as 20 yards on each side of the fairway. Now pundents arguing for maintaining a course’s difficultly might argue that it would make Pine Valley easier. I disagree, I think the challenge would be equal but the visual victory would be a reward.

How do we measure this collapse of the corridor? It can be marked by Pine Valley’s bunkers that lurk forgotten within the sea of trees- some of which are 30 yards into the current tree line.

Do I think Pine Valley will restore these original corridors? I do not. The course is already ranked #1 in the world, what does a ranking of #1+ do for the club and it’s membership. I only bring it up because I like to fight for the intent of its original design and the beautiful landscape of that hollowed ground.

The Death of a Legend

The brilliance and scope of Pine Valley is a reflection of the man who made it happen- George Crump. This larger than life man understood the brilliant topography of the land back when it was full of lush pines planted in sandy soil. In 1913 Crump founded Pine Valley Golf Club and went about clearing 22,000 trees and draining the low lying swampy areas in an era that required the work to be heavily manual with only the aid of real horses power.

Not long after the start of construction Pine Valley picked up the unenviable nickname: “Crump’s Folly.”

In 1914 Pine Valley, though only 11 holes at the time, it opened up to much fanfare. Unfortunately Crump’s money had nearly run out. Over the next 4 years the course grew from 11 holes to 14 holes, but in 1918 on the cusp of his own financial ruin, George Crump took his own life at the age of 46. Hole 12, 13, 14 and 15 were finally completed in 1922. It was that year that the membership kicked off the inaugural Crump Cup to honor the man who had the vision to build the greatest golf course in the world.